jlawrence01

I try everything on a cruise ship over the course of a cruise and rarely gain a lot of weight as we try to walk 10-15 MILES every day and climb a lot of steps. I am NOT real concerned about HEALTHY as most foods are healthy as part of a balanced diet. I just don't eat a lot of the things I do taste. That is one thing I do NOT like about HAL where you are served most of your food at their buffet. My general plate at a buffet looks like an artist's palette - a dab of this and a dab of that, NOT FULL PORTIONS.

I have many Filipino employees over the years in the US and in call centers in Manila. We were on the Carnival Splendor in 2019 and our three waiters were all Filipinos. I jokingly asked the head waiter, "what night will we have adobo?" which is the national dish of the Philippines. He laughed. On the last night of the cruise, he said, "I have something special for you." He brought my wife and I a bowl of chicken adobo which was on the crew mess that night. It wasn't presented with the same flair as the other dishes but it was quite good. It has been my experience in that you can generally get just about anything you want if you ask for it ahead of time. By the way, the MDR food on the Carnival Splendor was quite excellent.

HAL was in San Diego. Celebrity was in Fort Lauderdale.

Here are my general impressions based on one cruise on each: My background includes 15 years of culinary experience so I am a bit picky. HAL has far more creative menus throughout the ship and more food available later into the night. And HAL consistently delivered well executed dishes throughout the cruise. Celebrity generally delivered well prepared food but there were a number of basic dishes that were misses. Lentils that were not fully cooked, el dente risotto, Banana Foster where the bananas were raw. What is ironic is that i found some of these issues on Royal Caribbean. I thought that Celebrity had better service in that the MDR staff stayed with you until you were done. HAL staff would get you all your food and then move on. This might have been due to staff shortages post-Covid. I liked the music walk and the main theatre entertainment was top notch and what I was looking for. Celebrity had good entertainment options BUT the sound and lighting systems on the Millennium was primitive. I have seen better high school set ups. Embarkation was another issue. HAL requires you to wait until the minute you are assigned to board even when there is no line. We prepared to do the same when boarding a Celebrity ship when a staff member came out there and told us we could board 90 minutes early. I enjoyed both cruise lines and have a 10 day cruise and a 14 day cruise booked on HAL and a 7 day cruise with Celebrity. Hope that helps.

During the cruise season, what transfers are available between Bellingham airport and the Vancouver cruise port at Canada Place? I would prefer to fly into Bellingham that either YYR or SEA.

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